Who we are

The Accounts Commission, established in 1975, is the public spending watchdog for local government. We hold councils in Scotland to account and help them improve. We operate impartially and independently of councils and of the Scottish Government, and we meet and report in public.

Our work includes:

securing and acting upon the external audit of Scotland’s councils and various joint boards and committees

assessing the performance of councils in relation to Best Value and community planning

carrying out national performance audits to help councils improve their services

requiring councils to publish information to help the public assess their performance.

Welcome

to the Accounts Commission's annual report for 2013/14

Like all public bodies, the Commission’s most important asset is its reputation. This has been built up over nearly 40 years based on our impartiality, independence and the integrity of our work. Our challenge is to build on these attributes and raise the level of ambition in all of Scotland’s 32 councils.

Local government faces three key challenges: reducing budgets; ever increasing percentage of older citizens with higher needs; and continuing public expectations for high quality services.

Against that background and in common with all our scrutiny partners our key role is to provide assurance to the public that their money is spent wisely and properly. So it is good to report that the accounts for all councils in Scotland were in order this year.

And the Commission continued its responsibility in auditing best value in councils and, with our scrutiny partners, ensuring that scrutiny is proportionate and targeted at the right areas. Our published reports provide a detailed picture on how councils are performing.

We also took action on statutory reports by the Controller of Audit highlighting areas of serious concern in some councils. But we are also here to help councils improve. Our work includes highlighting good practice and check lists for each report we produce and more detailed guidance through our How Councils Work series.

Like the public, we want every council to be a well-run council. That means good governance and accountability, and accurate performance information and reporting. These are all essential ingredients of a culture of continuous improvement which needs to be in the life-blood of every council.

Highlights

Highlights

Our context

local government under pressure

Our annual overview review published in March 2014 examines how Scotland’s 32 councils have done over the past 12 months and the issues they face in the year ahead.

The Commission said councils need to make better and more consistent use of options appraisal so that they can deliver the best possible value for money services to their communities. Councils need to ask the question: “What works best and can we prove it?”

To date councils have balanced budgets mainly by reducing staff numbers but that alone is not sustainable in the longer term.

delivering the best possible value

While the financial position across councils remains relatively stable this year and next, councils have identified medium-term funding gaps and need to make substantial savings, at least over the next four years. More work is needed to develop resource plans in the longer term.

We want to ensure that our work reflects the changing way that councils are delivering services, which they increasingly do jointly with other partners. In 2013 and 2014, we reviewed, along with the Auditor General for Scotland, our joint apporach to auditing community planning partnerships. We agreed to a series of five such audits, which will report during 2014.

The Commission has worked closely over the last year with our scrutiny partners covering areas like education, social care and housing to produce a National Scrutiny Plan and an Assurance and Improvement Plan for every council.

The overall aim is to work out joint priorities so that the right scrutiny is applied in the right places by the right body. That delivers better quality alongside more efficient delivery.

Targeting resources at areas of risk also means fewer unnecessary burdens on councils in areas where their performance is satisfactory or good.

How your council is performing

We believe it is crucially important that councils have good performance information to help them decide their priorities and report effectively to their local communities. They both need to have a clear picture of what is going on.

The Commission has a statutory power to define what information councils must publish locally in the following financial year.

We have had concerns for some time about the quality and consistency of this information across councils.

Over the last year, there has been progress with new sets of indicators developed by the Society of Local Government Chief Executives and the Improvement Service.

The Commission welcomes this and encourages further work to provide more effective tools to benchmark performance. This is useful not only to see progress from year to year but also to compare with similar councils elsewhere.

The Commission published its statutory performance information Direction 2013 setting out its expectations of councils.

Our members

We said farewell to John Baillie who demitted office in November 2013 after ten years with the Commission, the last six as chair. John steered the Commission through a very challenging period for local government.

He was succeeded by Douglas Sinclair, previously depute-chair, who brings a wealth of experience from a career in local government with various councils and as a former chief executive of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Jim King also came to the end of his term of office as a member of the Commission. Jim brought his varied experience from both private and public sectors.

He was succeeded by Pauline Weetman, emeritus professor of accounting at the University of Edinburgh. Pauline has a valuable professional background as convener of the examining board and a member of the accounting standards committee for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Douglas Sinclair

Chair of Accounts Commission

Michael Ash

Alan Campbell

Sandy Cumming

Colin Duncan

Christine May

William McQueen

Colonel (retired) Colin Peebles

Linda Pollock

Graham Sharp

Professor Pauline Weetman

John Baillie

Chair of Accounts Commission (until 30 Nov 2013)

James King

(until 31 Oct 2013)

Members

Douglas Sinclair, Chair of Accounts Commission

Michael Ash

Alan Campbell

Sandy Cumming

Colin Duncan

Christine May

William McQueen

Colonel (retired) Colin Peebles

Linda Pollock

Graham Sharp

Professor Pauline Weetman

John Baillie, Chair of Account Commission (until Nov 2013)

James King (until Dec 2013)

How we work

The Commission is keen to improve how it does its own work and involves others with an interest in, or who are affected by, its work. We co-operate closely with the other inspectorates to achieve sharper focus on potential risks that lie ahead, so that issues facing councils can be addressed sooner and more effectively.

In the past year, Audit Scotland was able to report to the Commission that it had - on behalf of the Commission and the Auditor General - reduced the cost of audit by 20 per cent over four years.

Alongside the Auditor General we form the basis of public audit in Scotland.

All our monthly meetings are open to the public. Over the past year various chief officers from councils and other bodies have attended as well as the minister for local government. Minutes of our meetings and those of the meetings of our two committees, the Performance Audit Committee and Financial Audit and Assurance Committee, are publicly available.

At the same time, we have gone out to meet more than one third of councils in Scotland over the last year to discuss reports and hear their feedback on current issues.

As well as our role as independent watchdog with a prime focus on scrutiny, we are also part of the wider local government community. That means offering help and guidance in dealing with problems that are often complex and challenging, particularly when all budgets are getting tighter.

The Scottish Commission for Public Audit (SCPA) is central to holding Audit Scotland to account. The SCPA consists of five MSPs and meets in public. It appoints our non-executive members, scrutinises our budget, annual report and accounts, and produces reports on these.

Ronnie Cleland

Douglas Sinclair

Caroline Gardner

Auditor General for Scotland and accountable officer for Audit Scotland

Katharine Bryan

Independent non-executive member (until 31 March 2014)

John Maclean

Independent non-executive member

John Baillie

Chair of the Accounts Commission (until Nov 2013)

Auditor General for Scotland and accountable officer for Audit Scotland

The Auditor General's role is to appoint auditors to Scotland's central government and NHS bodies, examine how public bodies spend public money, help them to manage their finances to the highest standards and check whether they achieve value for money.

Auditor General for Scotland and accountable officer for Audit Scotland

The Auditor General's role is to appoint auditors to Scotland's central government and NHS bodies, examine how public bodies spend public money, help them to manage their finances to the highest standards and check whether they achieve value for money.

Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public
Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. We help the Auditor General
for Scotland and the Accounts Commission check that organisations spending public money use it properly, efficiently and effectively.

SCPA - The Scottish Commission for Public Audit (SCPA) is central to holding Audit Scotland to account. The SCPA consists of five MSPs and meets in public. It appoints our non-executive members, scrutinises our budget, annual report and accounts, and produces reports on these.

Caroline Gardner is Auditor General for Scotland and accountable officer for Audit Scotland

The Auditor General's role is to appoint auditors to Scotland's central government and NHS bodies, examine how public bodies spend public money, help them to manage their finances to the highest standards and check whether they achieve value for money.

Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public
Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. We help the Auditor General
for Scotland and the Accounts Commission check that organisations spending public money use it properly, efficiently and effectively.